THE PLAIN POTATO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1939, Page 10

THE PLAIN POTATO

HOW TO DRESS IT UP. To Fry, Potatoes. Potatoes should be fried in plenty of fat, the deep method is the best for this purpose. They can be cut intc various shapes—balls, strips, chips, and ribbons. For the balls a vegetable cutter will be necessary. The strips should be cut very finely. To cut the chips, cut round a potato first, then cut it across into very thin slices. To cut ribbon potatoes, choose nice round potatoes and peel them evenly so that you have a smooth surface, then cut round and round into ribbons. The potatoes should then be soaked for a time in cold water, then drained well and dried in a cloth. To fry them, wait until a faint smoke rises from the fat, then put the potatoes into a frying basket, stand it in the deep pan of fat, and fry them until golden brown. Drain on paper and serve. If fried in batches, put them in again altogether at the last for a few seconds to crisp them, then drain and serve. Be very careful when deep frying not to fill the pan too full so that the fat overflows.

Potato Sausages. Take l£-lb. potatoes, butter or margarine, 1J tablespoonfuls chopped parsley, tablespoonfuls chopped nuts, salt, cayenne pepper, a little fine oatmeal, pinch of mace, frying fat, milk.

Boil the potatoes, strain them, and after mashing them add the parsley, nuts, butter, seasoning to taste, and a little milk. Make the mixture into sausage shapes, roll in oatmeal, and fry in boiling fat until a golden brown. Duchess Potatoes.

Take 1 dish mashed hot potatoes, 2 eggs, 2 to 3 dessertspoonfuls flour, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg to taste. Mix all ingredients well together until you obtain a smooth paste with no streaks of egg in it. Shape into nests or oblongs by squeezing the mixture through a forcing pipe on to a greased tin or baking sheet. A better way to cook the nests is in fireproof individual dishes, in which they are to be served. These nests make good containers for creamed fish, meat, mushrooms, or sliced hard-boiled egg in cheese sauce. Use the oblongs for garnishing any meat dish that requires to be browned under the griller.

You can also force this mixture round shells or ramekins containing fish with cheese sauce, and then bake till potato is browned. To make a potato ring, pack the prepared potatoes into a buttered crumbed ring mould. Bake in the oven for forty-five minutes. Pack the potato paste into a buttered, grooved pudding mould or a border mould, cover with a buttered paper, and steam for one hour, and serve filled with creamed meat or fish. Scrambled Potatoes. Take 3 cupfuls diced potatoes, 3 pint stock, 2 tablespoonfuls diced bacon, 1 tablespoonful butter, 2 tablespoonfuls flour, salt and pepper to taste. .Remove the rind from bacon_ before dicing and measuring. Place bacon in a hot saucepan and cook until the fat runs out, when add butter and flour, and stir all till flour is light brown. Next mix in stock and potatoes, then cover. Cook for ten minutes, season to taste, then simmer till potatoes are soft. Serve with any cold meat or with pork or beef sausages.